“This is Black poetry planet.”
– Nikky Finney, 2004
Lifetime Achievement Awardees
Furious Flower IV Honorees
Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection UnHistory, was co-written with John Kinsella. Of his sixteen collections of poetry, his most recent titles include Sturge Town, Nebraska, Duppy Conqueror, shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award; Wheels; Back of Mount Peace; Hope’s Hospice; Wisteria, finalist for the Patterson Memorial Prize; Impossible Flying; and Gomer’s Song. Progeny of Air was the winner of the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection in the UK. Other poetry collections include Resisting the Anomie, Prophets, Jacko Jacobus, and Requiem. Dawes is a George W. Holmes University Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. He is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022, Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica.
Photo Credits: John Peterson
Elizabeth Alexander, a celebrated poet, scholar, and cultural advocate, is a nationally recognized thought leader on race, justice, the arts, and American society. As president of the Mellon Foundation, she leads a multi-billion-dollar philanthropy and the nation’s largest funder of the arts and humanities. Prior, she served as director of Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation. Dr. Alexander has taught and inspired generations of students while holding distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University. An author or co-author of fifteen books, she was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize: American Sublime for poetry and her memoir, the New York Times best-seller The Light of the World for biography. Her latest is The Trayvon Generation. Other works include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010, Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews, The Black Interior: Essays, Antebellum Dream Book, Body of Life, and The Venus Hottentot. Dr. Alexander is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and serves on the board of the Pulitzer Prize. She has been awarded ten honorary doctorates and recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. TIME Magazine named Dr. Alexander one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2022. In 2009, she composed and delivered the poem “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Portrait by Sharif Hamaz
“I was invited to attend the first Furious Flower conference … and I had to convince the dean to give me funding to travel there. The conference was worth every penny she gave me, and every word I’ve written since then.”
— Natasha Trethewey, 2014
About the Conference
The first Furious Flower Poetry Conference was a historic gathering. Convened by Dr. Joanne Gabbin in September 1994 to celebrate the eminent poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the conference brought together Black poets, as well as scholars and lovers of Black poetry. The groundbreaking gathering was among the largest of its kind, drawing more than 30 acclaimed Black poets in conversation and audiences of up to 1,300 people. Attendees packed auditoriums on the campus of James Madison University to hear from Black poets and learn more about Black poetry.
In 2004, Dr. Gabbin convened a second conference, which was dedicated to Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka. Again, dozens of Black poets and scholars gathered at James Madison’s campus to be in community with each other and to share their work with audiences in the hundreds.
In 2005, the Furious Flower Poetry Center was chartered at James Madison University, establishing the nation’s first academic center dedicated to Black poetry. Since its founding, the Center has facilitated programming on the local, regional, and national levels, with a commitment to nurture, promote and pass on the rich and ongoing legacy of Black poets.
With the convening of the third Furious Flower Conference in 2014—this time dedicated to Rita Dove—the decennial nature of this flagship event became firmly established. The conference had also become defined by its focus on the long view of Black poetic traditions. The decade between each convening allowed the conference to become the venue for discussing and exploring significant canonical developments, critical approaches, and evolutions within Black poetic activity.
Through open mics, interviews, roundtable scholarly discussions, and, of course, readings by the most renowned names in poetry, the Furious Flower Poetry Conference continues to stage contemporary trends in Black literature, culture, and thought from a range of creative outlooks, as well as provide a platform for new scholarship, critical approaches, and performance strategies.
Intergenerational, international, and intentional in its focus on the expansiveness of the Black poetic tradition, the 2024 Furious Flower Conference celebrates The Worlds of Black Poetry and is jointly dedicated to the inestimable Elizabeth Alexander and Kwame Dawes. Furious Flower IV will be held at its traditional home at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia on September 18-21, 2024.
